Aperiodic space-inhomogeneous quantum walks: localization properties, energy spectra and enhancement of entanglement

Abstract

We study the localization properties, energy spectra and coin-position entanglement of the aperiodic discrete-time quantum walks. The aperiodicity is described by spatially dependent quantum coins distributed on the lattice, whose distribution is neither periodic (Bloch-like) nor random (Anderson-like). Within transport properties we identified delocalized/localized quantum walks mediated by a proper adjusting of aperiodic parameter. Both scenarios are studied by exploring typical quantities (inverse participation ratio and survival probability), as well as the energy spectra of an associated effective Hamiltonian. By using the energy spectra analysis, we show that the early stage the inhomogeneity leads to vanishing gap between two main bands, which justifies the the delocalized character observed for $ν<0.5$. With increase of $ν$ arises gaps and flat-bands on the energy spectra, which corroborates the suppresion of transport detected for $ν>0.5$. For $ν$ high enough we observe an energy spectra which resembles that described by the 1d Anderson model. Within coin-position entanglement, we show many settings in which an enhancement in the ability to entangle is observed. This behavior brings new informations about the role played by aperiodicity on the coin-poisition entanglement for static inhomogeneous systems, reported before as almost always reducing the entanglement when comparing with the homogeneous case. We extend the analysis in order to show that systems with static inhomogeneity are able to exhibit asymptotic limit of entanglement.